Known hand-held umbrella designs have not appropriately addressed various considerations that can significantly affect the comfort and convenience of the user, and/or affect the operational performance of the umbrella, particularly in connection with umbrellas that may have a canopy encompassing a relatively large surface area and/or a relatively long shaft and thus may result in relatively large forces when subjected to wind.
For example, known umbrella designs tend to exhibit a generally rigid approach to how the user holds the umbrella. One example of the rigid approach of such umbrella designs is that a handle fixed at a singular position is provided to indiscriminately fit all users, regardless of individual user preferences and/or variable operational conditions. Further, umbrella handles are commonly affixed to the end of the shaft furthest from the umbrella canopy, and this is not necessarily the best position when considering comfort, convenience and performance under a variety of weather and operational conditions. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide practical and cost-effective structural improvements that can readily and in a user-friendly manner accommodate individual user preferences while providing ergonomic benefits to the user, such as grip positional adaptability under various operational circumstances, such as light rain versus heavy rain, light wind versus heavy wind, or even when holding other objects in addition to the umbrella.